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What I’ve Been Reading #75

Friday, March 27, 2015

The reason I read Weaponized by Nicholas Mennuti is because the author was in my high school class! Otherwise, it is pretty unlikely that this book would have come to my attention. I think it’s pretty cool that Nick has a published book; however, just because I used to know him didn’t make me love the book any more or less. The best thing about the book for me was the fact that the main character and his best friend were named after high school classmates of mine! I wish that Nick had named all of the characters after people I knew. “Kyle West is a wanted man. Having fled the country to escape the false charges filed against himself and his former boss, billionaire government contractor Christopher Chandler, Kyle's hiding in Cambodia, living on borrowed time and finding more and more reasons to be paranoid. When a mysterious stranger named Julian Robinson walks into Kyle’s favorite café and offers to swap passports with Kyle, Kyle can't believe his luck. Robinson looks so much like Kyle it’s almost unreal, and seems in every way the yin to Kyle's yang--self-assured, charismatic and wealthy beyond measure. Traveling on business, Robinson needs Kyle’s passport to get to Africa, where a lucrative deal awaits. Kyle needs Robinson's passport to safely flee Cambodia. The swap seems almost too good to be true. Unfortunately for Kyle, it is. This one decision plunges Kyle into a Pandora’s Box of intrigue that threatens to swallow him whole. Suddenly he finds himself being pursued by Russian oligarchs, Chinese operatives, the CIA, and a beautiful woman trained to kill; because Robinson certainly isn’t who he seemed. And time is running out for Kyle to discover who he is.” The idea of the story and the plot seem like they would be interesting, but unfortunately I didn’t feel that the book was all that wonderful. A few reviewers on Amazon pointed out that the book read more like a screen play or like it was written to be turned into a movie, and that makes sense to me. The co-author, David Guggenheim, is actually a screenwriter rather than a novelist. The action scenes were definitely exciting, so I say if you read this with the idea in mind that it could be a screen play, you might like it more than I did. Sorry Nick!

Hi there!

As a mom to 3, I try to teach my kids that every day can be an adventure! I always tell them that things can be fun if they make them fun. This is where I document it all. I love travel, photography, reading, writing, & spending time with my family!